Posts made in May, 2013

“Warwick in History” – The Warwick Cemetery was founded by an association organized at a meeting held in the Wawayanda Hotel on November 27, 1866. The association purchased and laid out a tract of upland in the center of the valley, not far from the Village of Warwick. The selection was made with excellent judgement and discriminating taste. Here are none but the soft and gentle lines, easy grades and smiling landscape that suggest life, love, beauty, and immortality; rather than harshness and death. the contour of the ground is favorable to the artificial arrangements...

“Warwick in History” – This fable of how the Red Swan Inn got its name appeared in TWO CENTURIES IN WARWICK published by the Warwick Historical Society. The Red Swan Inn was Warwick’s largest hotel, and in its early days a favorite of local people as well as New Yorkers. For several years the Warwick Historical Society held an annual dinner there. The legend is that the inn took its name from a swan that was painted red by two men hired to paint a barn. It seems they hid a barrel of applejack in a spring on the place, and at some point when they were enjoying its...

“Warwick in History” – Pine Island became a part of the Town of Warwick in 1788. Title to the soil is derived from the Wawayanda Patent. This Indian deed of 1702-1703 was made out to twelve white men, one of whom was John Merritt. Merritt’s Island in Pine Island still bears the name. John Everett and Samuel Clowes were induced to take charge of the settlement of the patent. They appear to have been land speculators, but were nevertheless direct agents in inducing immigration and the founding of prosperous towns. As early as 1714 they laid out the Town of Goshen, of...

“Warwick in History” – In the year 1859, a farmer’s boy received a little circular setting forth the advantages of education. The boy already had a fair common school education and had spent some time at Seward Institute, situated not far from his home. He knew little or nothing of business, but as he had been thinking of taking a partner and making a start for himself, he saw that the little circular described just what he needed. he therefore, brought the matter to the attention of his father, and they talked it over, the father agreeing with him that a business...

“Warwick in History” – On this day in 1939 the first patient was admitted to St. Anthony’s Hospital. She was Frances Sadlock of Pine Island, the housekeeper of Father Felczak. The four-story brick addition to the old J. C. Babcock home on Maple Avenue, which had been purchased in 1937 by the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, had been completed. The dedication of the new hospital had taken place t…he day before. On May 19 Dr. Arnold Bockar performed the first operation on a infant. Three operations were performed on June 26. The chief of medicine and obstetrics was...